Diet has become a difficult term for many people to hear because of the strict rules and measures implied by the word. There are thousands, nowadays, that are available in the market to choose from and follow. Some popular ones include the South Beach Diet, Ketogenic Diet, the Vegan Diet and so much more.
However, most of the time, major changes in your eating habits are necessary to get these programs to work for you and the adjustment can be too much.
Some involve eliminating necessary food groups altogether, like carbs, and following a strict diet that not only removes all the fun from your meals but also lacks the necessary nutrients your body needs to stay healthy and strong.
Now, we can’t have that, can we?
What if we told you that we can provide you with a much simpler system where ensuring the intake of certain food groups is the key to your rapid weight loss?
Yup, that’s right. Protein, healthy fat and fiber are essential for a leaner and healthier body and incorporating these three food groups into a proper diet is the key.
Let us show you how having the right amount of all three nutrients daily can assist you in building your muscles, burning stored up fats and help your body maximize the absorption of the nutrients it needs.
1. Increase Protein Intake
Many of the popular diets that are out in the market today recommend an increase in the intake of proteins in our daily diet for many good reasons. For starters, incorporating more protein in your meals will help you maintain the muscle mass you already have and increase the rate of your metabolism.
These factors are both helpful in the fat-burning department. By now, we all know that muscle burns fat so having more of it in our bodies means losing a good amount of what we’ve got stored up as well.
A study conducted by the American Journal of Physiology suggested that simply eating more protein can increase your muscle mass. Yup, you heard it right, no workout no problem.
Eat more lean protein and you build muscle in your body just like that. If that’s your goal, start incorporating more lean proteins in your diet and spot the changes.
Eating more of the food group also makes you burn more calories. Actually, a whopping 25 – 35 percent of the calories you intake in the form of protein are used up as fuel by the body in the process of digesting it.
That’s because it requires more effort for the body to break down the protein we eat. Can you imagine that? Eat more, weigh less.
Lastly, because the process of digesting protein takes longer, eating it causes you to feel satisfied for much longer hours as well. Research has shown that people who eat more of the food group last longer without going hungry thus eating less in their day and feeling more satisfaction in their meals as well.
Good sources are vegan protein found in protein drink mixes, oatmeal, soy or almond milk and nut butters. Try mixing these delicious ingredients to your preferred protein powder and you’ll have an awesome meal alternative in hand.
2. Eat Healthy Fats
To burn fat, you need fat! That is the simple truth.
Nowadays, when people hear the word fat, they immediately think yikes!!! Bad oily skin, weight gain for sure and big, flabby body are some of the thoughts associated with the word.
But that is not exactly true. There are good fats – the kind we need in our body to burn more of our stored-up enemies – and bad fats – the kind we need to stay away from at all costs if we know what’s good for us.
For a meal to be perfect, it needs to contain at least one good fat variant. A few examples would be olive oil, different variety of nuts, dark chocolate, coconut, chia and hemp seeds, sunflower oil and avocado.
There are so much more sources of good fats out there. If you’re serious about losing weight and gaining muscle, research and come up with your own list to guide you.
Eating the right portion of good fats on a daily basis keeps your body healthy and regulates our hunger hormones keeping us satisfied for much longer periods. Studies have proven this and now it’s time for you to try it out for yourselves.
Incorporate it in your smoothie, cook with it, liven up your salad and enjoy the many benefits you gain from having it regularly.
3. A High-Fiber Diet
You’ve heard about the big role fiber plays in helping you stay healthy and lose the unnecessary weight you’ve packed on but aren’t sure what it does exactly for your body? Here’s a brief description to help you understand better.
A recent study conducted has found that people who increased the amount of the fiber they ate on a daily basis lost as much weight as people who were on a low-fat eating plan. Imagine that, not much of a change in your daily diet but big results indeed. The nutrient can be found in fruits and vegetables and whole-grain products.
Fiber does so much to keep the body healthy. It aides in proper digestion causing the body to get rid of built-up waste. It is also not easily broken down by the body causing us to feel fuller for longer periods of time. The best quality of fiber is that it can be a good appetite suppressant.
When fiber is digested by the body, it releases a substance called acetate which directly travels to the brain and sends us the message to stop eating. Yup, best warning device for munchers out there. Many doctors nowadays associate obesity in men and women with the decrease of our daily fiber intake as individuals.
If you want to ensure that you’re on the healthy side of the weighing scale, have more fiber.
